I have read a lot of threads and I still can’t fix my problem. My WD 2tb external hard drive accidentally fell last week so I decided to buy a new external hard drive and transfer the files from the old to the new. When I plug my WD external hard drive in my iMac, the icon doesn’t show up on the Desktop as it usually does, I cannot open the hard drive at all. I go into Disk Utility and the hard drive is there, although it is greyed out. I have tried to verify and repair the disk but it won’t work. But when I plug the hard drive into my TV it works. The files are all there, it is just slow to load up the files, but all the movies, tv shows etc. work fine, so I know the files are still there! But I want to be able to get these files from my iMac so that I can back it up elsewhere.

I have even downloaded Yodot Mac Data Recovery from another forum I read. Tried using that and the hard drive was displayed but it said there was no volume in the file. Is there another program I can use? Or can anybody give me some advice please?

Mr Platinum

December 13, 2013 at 4:56 pm

I had a similar problem with an o/s crash and had spent hours on the phone with a recovery technician only to be told that I would have to accept the lost. I removed the hard drive from the case and placed it in another i had laying around, i accessed the damaged hard drive went into the c partition which revealed my files still on the old hard drive drag and dropped all files from drive to a new folder created on my functioning desktop. sometimes simplicity is the best course of action, Lol. i then called up the technician and told him how i recovered the files demanding an immediate refund of the technicians fee and got it, blah blah blah
So in hindsight try loading your old hard drive up through a competent o/s first, or in the least access the files through one.

Gjergji K

December 12, 2013 at 11:35 am

EaseUS Data Recovery, the free version offers recovery of only 1GB.

Lazza

December 12, 2013 at 11:19 am

If it's a logical problem, not a physical one, I strongly recommend you to try Restorer Ultimate Pro 7. It's available for Windows and Mac, unfortunately not on Linux bit runs on Wine if provided with a dd image.
The free demo let's you analyze everything, see what can be restored and save the scan results. Then you can decide if you want to pay the license and get the data back. It's cheaper and more powerful than other software I've seen.

Forever

December 12, 2013 at 9:26 am

There is a kind of professional tool can help to transfer. You can find this tool called EaseUS in google and the comments of it are pretty good. So you can have a try. Also this tool also has many other functions auch as data recovery. If you want to know more about it, you can visit this website.

Angelina L

December 12, 2013 at 9:14 am

the instant thing for you is to recover the external hard drive. Certainly, a handy external hard drive data recovery tool, will be highly recommended to help recover data from external hard drive when you want to figure out how to retrieve data from external hard drive when it is corruptedhttp://www.easeus.com/resource/drive/external-hard-drive.htm

Istvan

December 12, 2013 at 7:35 am

I have 3 WD external HDDs in the trash;
2 times only the external case was damaged, the HDDs where fine, after installing them internally .) worth a shot.
(and i dont recommend WD externals...
...only externals with an old fashion OFF switch)

Mini S

December 12, 2013 at 6:15 am

For me , the solution is recovering data by Power Data Recovery.

Kostas

December 11, 2013 at 11:15 pm

You need special equipment to recover the most and critical data. Even though we don't like it, we have to leave this job to a recovery technician.

From there grab your mbr file and use the one of the mbr / partition software to push it back.

For some weird reason, my drive never detected on any pc but on multimedia devices. (don't ask why, just be lucky your drive still spins. my last drive doesn't)

Lazza

December 12, 2013 at 5:25 pm

Just a small note: Hiren's Boot CD is, for the most part, pirate software.

Oron Joffe

December 12, 2013 at 9:07 pm

Not at all. Hiren's CD is perfectly legal and the authors have left out many useful tools precisely in order to keep it legal.

Lazza

December 12, 2013 at 9:12 pm

Ok this is nice news. Last time I checked, the CD was a trimmed down version of Windows = pirate software, and it contained numerous tools which where shareware / paid. There was no download link on the author website for these specific reasons.
I admit it was 6 months ago I last checked, I should have checked again before writing. Sorry.

Ryan S.

December 11, 2013 at 9:24 pm

I had a severely damaged hard drive from a drive that took a fall from a pretty good distance. There was nothing I could take care of at home. Someone suggested I go to Staples and to my surprise, they actually do data recovery, or at least they have a partner who does. They gauranteed me my data or I didn't have to pay so I really had nothing to lose. About nine days later I got a call that there was going to be a 97% success rate. I went in and verified some files and in about four more days, I had my data back on an external drive that they provided for free (well, not really free I guess since I paid for the service). I've now installed Carbonite so I don't have to worry about this again. Seems like one of those mistakes you make only once in your life.

Chay P

December 11, 2013 at 9:10 pm

This problem happened to me, tried all sorts of recovery software, even got some professional IT guys (ones I know won't BS me like some store IT guys) and It was completely gone nothing at all.

I know this post doesn't help much, just advice being expect the worst.

Harry B

December 11, 2013 at 9:50 am

This sounds like it could just not be getting enough power from your latop, because it has somehow been damaged and now neeeds more power to run properly, which is why it's fine when connected to your tv. It's worth trying plugging in a power supply if there is a port for that, or just transferring all the files to another hard drive when it's connected to the tv, so you at least keep your data.

dragonmouth

December 10, 2013 at 2:20 pm

If you access to another PC with either Windows or Linux, try reading the drive on that PC.

If you can remove the HD from its enclosure, do so and install it in your Mac. It is possible that only the enclosure is damaged, not the actual HD.

Justin P

December 10, 2013 at 5:00 pm

Yeah, it's possible the drive is fine and the enclosure is broken. I hope that's the case.